Culture parastatals under microscope

Edozie Udeze writes on the visit by Federal House of Representatives Committee on Culture and Tourism to the parastatals in the Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism which didn’t seem to create any impact

The recent visit by the culture and Tourism committee of the Federal House of Representatives to the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), the National Theatre and the National Troupe of Nigeria, did not only serve as an eye opener in terms of the level of understanding of cultural matters by the lawmakers, but how the federal government has chosen to invest and show interest in the sector.

The oversight visit was led by the deputy committee chairman on culture, Alhaji Abdulmalik Usman, accompanied by Abbas Machika both of who said they stood in for the chairman who was on an official assignment somewhere. However, none of the two made any remarkable statement or impact that will help to move the sector forward. Not only that, Abdulmalik was in a hurry to conclude the visit and get back to Abuja, he couldn’t even give one serious official position of the government on the state of culture in Nigeria. This stand, to the surprise of many culture reporters, indeed set minds wondering as to why the Federal government has over the years deliberately decided to stifle the sector of enough funds to run its affairs.

At CBAAC, Professor Tunde Babawale told the committee why the Centre was set up after the 1977 2nd World Festival of Arts and Culture which was held in Lagos. He explained that the relics of the festival are kept in safe custody on behalf of other countries of the world that took part in the event. But beyond that, CBAAC is the only parastatal in the Culture Ministry with an international mandate to project and propagate Pan- Africanism in its outlook and content.

Babawale, whose department has practically become immobile financially in the past few years, took the committee down memory lane on the programmes they have done since seven years with the meager resources provided by the government. “We try to do the much we can with the little allocation given to us. We have seven outreach centres across the nation, yet we do not have enough overhead to cater for all our needs. It has been very difficult to have some things done due to shortage of funds,” he said.

Babawale went on to appeal to the committee to raise the budget of the Centre in next year’s budget. “Please, I appeal to you to use this opportunity to look into the plight of CBAAC, so that we can effectively discharge our statutory mandate not only to Nigerians but to all the Blacks wherever they are. As at now, we are the least in the budget in the ministry, yet we have a lot of international official responsibilities to discharge.”

Although Abdulmalik promised to ensure that the financial situation be looked into by the committee, the promise did not sound convincing to many. He said: “We should have proper value for what is ours. This is why we will like to take care of CBAAC. We can see that this is a serious parastatal and it needs funds to continue to run its affairs. We know that this Centre has an enviable record. Therefore, we will ensure that the funding of the sector is increased in the next budget,” he said.

At the National Troupe of Nigeria, which the committee deputy – chairman mistakenly called the National Trip, it was a different ball – game entirely. There, there was no time to tour the artistes’ hotels and assess some of the facilities that needed urgent government attention. The reason was that they were running out of time. For this reason, a sketchy stage dance was performed to tease them. Even then, Abdulmalik and co did not have the patience to savour the beauty of the dances. After an interval of ten minutes or so in the hall, he signalled for a stop.

Addressing reporters thereafter, the committee deputy chairman opined that the culture sector be allowed to be more private-driven. “This is why we have an oversight visit which is part of our official assignment as law-makers. We have also seen that the National Theatre is in a very bad shape. Many things need to be fixed and we will see to all that soon,” he said.

All said, these promises sounded hollow and familiar. For many years now, these issues have been raised and brought to the attention of the federal government. Each new culture minister and House committee members will come and make tall and high-sounding promises, yet none has been fulfilled. This was why many received this last one with some level of skepticism and doubt.